Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Thickening Silicone & Other Oils

  • Thickening Silicone & Other Oils

    Posted by hishine1 on August 2, 2014 at 1:43 pm

    Hi All

    Hoping to get some ideas here - or be shot down in flames….. as the title says I would like to thicken oils, but I would like to know if this can be done to produce a crystal clear Anhydrous gel or jelly type end result.  What I want to do is achieve a cross between say a ‘baby oil’ gel type consistancy and a heavier lip gloss type product.  As usual it has to be all about shine - like patent type shine.
    I have had lots of playing around making lovely thick buttery goop with oils and waxes, but I dont know if I’m barking up the wrong tree hoping for a crystal clear result. A fair while back I tried using some very high melt point “Gelled Mineral Oil” , for the life of me I cant remember the name sorry - think it was a RITA product. From memory it didnt incorporate well with silicones.
    I’m open to using different products to get the end result, I have quite a few different silicones on hand to tinker with, polybutene etc But from my limited knowledge I cant see how I can get the clear gel. I did try some pre-thickened silicone gel but it had a mattifying effect.
    The product I want has to be blindingly shiny, have enough slip to be easy to apply, be able to handle heat and some sweat without beading, not turn into a runny mess on a 40 degree day…. and still be clear.  
    I’m sorry I cant be more specific, I know what I need in a tube but no idea what you would call it or if its possible to do.
    Any thoughts would be appreciated.
    Cheers
    Paula
    hishine1 replied 9 years, 6 months ago 5 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    August 4, 2014 at 11:52 am

    Paula, you likley used Versagel from Calumet-Penreco before?  You are right, the polysioxane gums will thicken but always present a matte finish - OK for make-up primers, not so much for glossers. I seem to recall Seppic was recently peddling a silicone thickener; perhaps check their repertoire?.

  • bobzchemist

    Member
    August 4, 2014 at 1:09 pm
  • Anonymous

    Guest
    August 8, 2014 at 8:57 am

    Sensient has wonderful ingredients you need:



  • Bati

    Member
    August 15, 2014 at 4:57 pm

    I have used the GP-1 and EB-21 gelling agents (Bobzchemist’s link above) to get crystal clear gel/silicone sticks (according to their literature, you must use a combination of both GP-1 and EB-21 to get clarity).You could try adjusting the use levels to get gels, although I do not know what would happen during stability testing.

  • chemist77

    Member
    August 17, 2014 at 1:26 am

    @Bati The use of these 2 items (which have to be used in conjunction and as communicated to me by Ajinomoto) would shoot up the formulation cost. For a high end product it can be absorbed but for medium to low-priced products I guess other thickeners would be more handy (of course after optimization).

  • hishine1

    Member
    October 1, 2014 at 7:57 pm

    Hi all. Thought I should give an update for anyone looking at previous posts for Oil Thickeners. I havent yet finished all formulations as there are still several ingredients to try.
    But most successful so far (for my purposes) has been using a combo mix of Polyamides with a solvent and vegetable oils or hydrocarbons and or silicones. I have read elsewhere that these give a rather stiff/crumbly and not so elegant clear gel/stick, but loaded up with organo silicones it gave me a lovely feel with the clarity and structure close to what I need.

    Thanks everyone for your input and comments! very helpful and appreciated :-)

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